Just 30 years ago, Costa Rica was
a barren landscape for golfers. But now there are enough links to write
about.

A.M. Costa Rica reporter Joe Medici has compiled a rough
outline of the courses in

Costa Rica. We also would be interested
in reports from individual golfers.

Plus, we think we may have missed a course or two. If you know of a
hidden golf course, please let us know. Write Mr.
Medici.

Will there be coal in their stockings?Public employees run risk of a chilly Christmas

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The calendar may say only Monday, Nov. 8, but it is nearly Christmas
in Costa Rica.

Stores are not trapped here by Thanksgiving, and Christmas displays
have been up for at least three weeks in most major shops.

But all is not well this year. Traditionally and by law employers have
to award workers a Christmas bonus equal to about a month’s pay for those
who have worked the entire year. The bonus is one reason Yuletide is so
merry here.

But the Ministerio de Hacienda, the budget agency, is making noises
suggesting the government cannot afford to pay public employees their 13th
month of pay, called the aguinaldo. That would not be a surprise for a
government that can barely afford to make the most necessary highway repairs.

At least 170,000 persons are employed in public jobs in Costa Rica,
and many are unhappy already by what they see as officially mandated wage
hikes that have failed to keep pace with an inflation rate of about 11
per cent and rising costs of basic foodstuffs.

The strikes that blocked the nation’s roads in

late August were, in part, the work
of the public employees unions. Only about 60 percent of the country’s
public workforce are union members, but probably all are depending on the
aguinaldo to pay off credit cards, make Christmas purchases and perhaps
pay for a trip to the beach.

Aguinaldos usually are paid during the second and third weeks of December,
so the government has about a month to put together the funds for most
public employee aguinaldos. Because some public employees work for independent
institutes, like the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and the Instituto
Nacional de Seguros, they stand a better chance of collecting the money
due them.

Others work for municipalities or separate agencies that may not have
the cash crisis facing the central government.

Nothing has been said officially, and public employee unions have not
yet raised the issue. Any job action might be defused by the two- to three-week
vacations typical for public employees at Christmas. However, key employees,
such as air traffic controllers at the nation’s airports could have a disproportionate
effect if the government does not come through with the cash.

The plan envisions linking the southern Mexico states with all of Central
America by merging electrical, pipeline and highway networks, among other
facilities. The plan is a package of 26 giant projects that are designed
to attract outside financing. Initial investment is about $10 billion.

The plan has been declared dead a number of times, but the concept continues
to inch forward, being overshadowed in the news by the Central American
free trade agreement. The plan gets its name from the city in México,
Puebla, and the southernmost country involved in the project, Panamá.

Server woes plaguepaper’s web pages

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Arizona-based Internet server that handles the Web pages for A.M.
Costa Rica has been experiencing problems.

Server operators reported a hacker attack a week ago, and service has
declined since. The Internet service reached a point over the weekend where
the newspaper’s Web pages were available to the public only about half
of the time.

The company, RegisterFly, is one of the largest in the United State
with nearly 400,000 customers. However, only a small percentage depend
on the affected server.

The newspaper has prepared another Internet site as a fallback location
if server problems continue. That site can be reached by an Internet numerical
address.

Picnic will refreshbattered Democrats

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Don’t count the Democrats out.

Local Democrats may have suffered political whiplash Nov. 2 when their
presumed victor in the U.S. presidential race lost by a scant 20 electoral
votes.

And Democrats have little to cheer about Republican gains in the U.S.
Senate and House.

But recovery time is here, said an announcement from the local organization:
"Everyone in the community who is in recovery from the elections is invited
to a restorative potluck picnic hosted by Democrats Abroad of Costa Rica.
. . ."

The event Saturday, Dec. 4, will be at Chopo’s picnic grounds in Ciudad
Colón. The Democrats will be providing the turkey and cranberry
sauce. More information is available from Ruth Dixon at 494-6260
or e-mail dixonmueller@yahoo.com.

Informants help agentsfind drug traffickers

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Judicial Investigating Organization says it has set up a new program
of secret local informers to root out drug dealers.

Local informants are supposed to report alleged illicit activities,
said the Judicial Investigating Organization as it reported an arrest in
Los Angeles de Nosara. Agents said a man who was a native of the area has
been detained for growing marijuana. They credited various residents for
providing the information against the man, identified by the last name
of Díaz. They said 150 grams of prepared marijuana were found, as
were chemicals for the cultivation of the plant.

In the community of Colas de Gallo, three persons, two brothers and
an uncle, were detained under similar circumstances. Agents said that in
this Nicoya community the trio were maintaining a marijuana plantation
among other agricultural projects. Some 122 plants were destroyed and about
500 grams of prepared marijuana were confiscated, investigators said.

Calderón returningto court hearing

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier will be back in court today
as his lawyers try to get a preventative detention ruling reversed. The
former president now has an address of La Reforma Prison in Alajuela, although
he spent nearly two days at Clinica Católica in Moravia for complaints
of high blood pressure.

Calderón was the first ex-president to be jailed in the recent
wave of corruption scandals, and he is seeking house arrest instead.

So is Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Calderón’s neighbor
in the Alajuela prison. Both have a series of court hearings scheduled
as well as appeals to higher courts to reverse the prison ruling.

Meanwhile, election officials have referred to the Ministerio Público,
the prosecutorial agency, its file on its investigation of the past presidential
election. Both major parties, Liberación Nacional and Unidad Cristiana,
appear to have accepted sums greater than the law allows and from foreign
sources, which also is illegal.

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"One who smiles to himself is thinking about something wicked he’s done."
We also say he has done something he does not want to share. It’s natural
to feel suspicious of a person who smiles too much, but doesn’t want to
tell us what’s on his mind.

But this dicho also assumes that the person . . . que se rie
solo . . . , has done fairly benign maldades. In other words
he or she is just a little mischievous. Otherwise they’d be slinking away
guiltily, rather than smiling to themselves like a Cheshire cat.

Actually, I used to do this very thing just to annoy my brothers, and,
guess what — it worked. They were always blaming me for things I didn’t
even know had happened. But because I teased them, they always said I was
the one who had made the mischief, no matter how much I denied it.
And believe me, growing up in a house full of brothers and sisters, and
my 12 cousins living just round the corner there was plenty of mischief
to get into.

One of my older brothers was not allowed to stay out past midnight.
I remember once when he got home around two in the morning and set off
the burglar alarm getting into the house. Well, of course, I was the one
who got blamed for setting up the alarm, no matter how much I swore I hadn’t
done it. That’s when I decided maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to keep
on smiling so much to myself,

xxxeven though I did sometimes rather enjoy the mischief that my siblings
got themselves into.

El que solo se rie de sus maldades se acuerda is an expression
that opens up a small debate, not about smiling, of course, but about feeling
guilty over taking pleasure in the misfortunes that befall others no matter
how trivial. In German this kind of pleasure is called Shadenfreude.
But what starts out as a nice, self-satisfied, wicked little smile can
sometimes end up calling down a load of guilt on our heads. So, if you
find you just can’t seem to give up . . . solo se rie de sus maldades
.
. . , perhaps its better to find a secret place where you can enjoy your
little smile unobserved.

Fighting the language fight no fun for an adult

By Joe Mediciof the A.M. Costa Rica stafff

Learning the Spanish language can be a difficult and almost hostile
event. The brain is bombarded with rolling r’s, irregular verbs and grammar
rules that contradict our basic instincts.

Learning it in a city like San José can be particularly difficult.
Many Ticos have taken a class in English and, therefore, have a basic understanding
of the language. This can be very helpful for weary travelers who do not
speak the language, but for those of us who are trying to learn Spanish,
their abilities can be quite maddening.

English speaking Gringos work up the courage to attempt a new social
interaction. Slowly women inch their way toward hair salons and men crawl
closer to the alluring meat counters at the grocers. The interactions are
all the same, however. Soon the man or women will stumble over a particularly
nasty conjugation, and suddenly the butcher or the stylist will apologetically
finish their sentence for them in English. It is a harrowing event to be
handed a half-pound of chorizo or a bottle of hair gel when you feel utterly
defeated.

Thousands of Ticos seem to float through the day on bilingual wings
as the rest of us mope around with our monolingual brethren. How do they
do it? How do they manage to keep the languages separate, how do they know
when to pluralize an adjective or when to apply gender to a direct object?

It truly is one of life’s great questions, but the answer is probably
in Spanish, which leads us back to our original problem. How do we attempt
to learn a completely new language? This endeavor is also known as teaching
an old dog a very difficult trick.

Let us suppose that any language has at a minimum 10,000 words that
are frequently used. Even if we take on two words a day that still leaves
us with over 13 years to adjust to a new language and that doesn’t even
account for different conjugations or verb tenses. These grossly large
numbers are enough to intimidate most mammals, but international Gringos
are a rare bunch and can withstand serious punishment. With that in mind,
here are the best ways to tackle the beast.

Spanish classes are offered throughout San José. These classes
can be very helpful, offering group settings that allow students to converse
with one another. The only problem, however, is that these groups are often
filled with 18-year-olds who are fresh out of high school. Most of these
kids already

have a year or two of Spanish under their belts and will undoubtedly
make an older student feel wholly inadequate.

Perhaps a private tutor is a better route then? The tutors are generally
bilingual and their private instruction is very helpful and very intensive.
The problem is that intensive normally translates into stressful for most
Gringos. After several hours with their tutors, many Gringos find it necessary
to head to the nearest bar and drink until they have forgotten everything
that was recently crammed into them.

Maybe a book is the best solution then. There are hundreds of them available
in stores throughout Costa Rica. Once again, however, a problem arises.
Many of these books lack essential vocabulary lessons, such as "Proper
Retorts to Cabbies and Bus Drivers", "How to Gracefully Turn Down a Professional
Lady" and "Soccer Hooliganism."

So what is the best solution then? Probably to take your proverbial
lumps, suffer through a few embarrassing moments and sign up for a class
or two. After a few months, who knows? You might even be able to order
your own sausage.

Golfers throughout the developed world are constantly watching out for
a diamond in the rough, a course that has open tee times, low green fees
and a genuinely beautiful environment.

The answer to these prayers may be in Costa Rica, where a recent boom
in the golf business has seen the introduction of several new courses that
all provide unique challenges and luscious environments for a fraction
of the price of courses in North America and Europe.

Just 30 years ago, Costa Rica was a barren landscape for golfers. The
Costa Rican Country Club stood as the only golf course in the country,
and its nine holes were only open to friends and family of the owner. In
1974, George Fazio, renowned designer of Augusta National, unveiled the
Cariari Club, a beautiful course just west of San José. This private
club has gorgeous fairways, and quick greens, earning it the reputation
of the best course in Central America.

For 20 years, however, it stood out as the only 18-hole course available
in the country. It wasn’t until the 1990s, when a boom in the industry
resulted in the construction of courses throughout the country, that golfers
truly had a diverse selection of courses throughout Costa Rica.

By 2000, Costa Rica had witnessed the development of several first-class
golf courses that attracted both casual and serious golfers from around
the world.

These courses were designed by legendary golfers and architects such
as Arnold Palmer, and used Costa Rica’s natural environment to create courses
that are both visually inviting and very playable. Many of the courses
are private clubs, but they usually are associated with nearby hotels that
are able to reserve tee times for their patrons.

If you are looking to visit Costa Rica and play a round or two, many
agents have packages that allow guests to travel around the country and
hone their skills at local courses. These packages normally start at around
$900 and include hotel stays, local travel costs and several rounds of
golf at two or three different courses.

A.M. Costa Rica has compiled a list of the most popular golf courses
in the country. We have listed contact information for each golf course
and a brief description of the course itself.

Central Valley

Cariari ClubPrivate club
Designed by George Fazio
18 holes
Yardage 6,590
(506) 293-3211
Rental clubs available

This gorgeous course has been enthralling members since the 1970s. Superintendent
Mario Zarattini and Jorge Piedrahita, director of golf, work tirelessly
to preserve this courses natural beauty and to ensure each guest feels
at home. Don’t spend too much time staring at the scenery, however. Cariari’s
tight fairways and protected greens will test even the most weathered golfers.
If you can keep the ball down the center, however, you should be well on
your way to a rewarding day of golf in one of the best courses in all of
Central America.

The home of the 2004 Costa Rican Open, Parque Valle Del Sol in Santa
Ana is one of the premier courses in Costa Rica. This large course can
cause problems for even the best golfers, but its picturesque environment
will keep professionals and amateurs coming back for years.

Costa Rica Country ClubPrivate club in Escazú
9 holes
(506) 228-9333

This nine-hole course is the oldest in Costa Rica. Many of the holes
are short, but the fairways are narrow, and rivers and sand traps protect
most of the greens.

The emerald fairways and greens at Garra de Leon are like a scene out
of a movie. Don’t let the beauty fool you though. This track plays tough.
Golfers will need to play positional golf in order to work through all
18 holes. Many of Garra de Leon’s golfers will tell you, however, that
the difficulty is half of the fun.

Out on the Nicoya Peninsula, Hacienda Pinilla carves its way through
the arid land. The track stretches out across over 2,500 acres and is separated
into two distinct nine hole sections. The ocean nine, offers sweeping views
of the Pacific and unleashes a strong breeze that can affect play. The
ranch nine can also be affected by the ocean breeze, but many golfers are
too busy watching the local howler monkeys to notice.

The Iguana is a unique course that allows golfers the chance to play
a round in the rain forest. Golfers will spend a good part of their day
relaxing under the beautiful jungle canopy as their golf guides help them
identify different types of plant and animal life. This course offers one
of the most beautiful environments and one of the best rounds of golf in
Central America.

This smaller, private course is positioned near the sea offering golfers
wonderful views as they tee off. The course is relatively small, but its
distinctive fairways and greens will keep golfers on their toes.

The Papagayo course overlooks
the ocean, as do several other operations on the Nicoya Peninsula and in
Guanacaste.

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